OUR NATIVE PINES. 15 



The "White Pine or Weymouth Pine (Plaits Strains) is next in 

 order of abundance, though its occurrence with us, is, at best 

 but occasional. Its light green foliage and the sy metrical grace of 

 young trees make it a well deserved favorite for lawns and parks. 

 It is the largest of our East American pines, reaching an altitude of 

 150 feet under favorable conditions of soil and environment and in 

 the north yields a most important lumber. Among our representa- 

 tives of this species we may note a beautiful grove of half a dozen 

 trees just east of the railroad between Garrettson's and Grant City, 

 another near Kreischerville, and some very large specimens in 

 the a Dongan Cedars," in the Clove Lake valley. We are near the 

 most southern range of the White Pine along the Atlantic coast ; a 

 few groups only occur in Southern New Jersey, but farther inland, 

 and especially along the mountains, it extends much farther in this 

 direction. The tree is readily distinguished from our other native 

 species by its five slender needles in each sheath and its long cones 

 with blunt, unarmed scales. 



The Georgia or Yellow Pine (Pin as echinata), frequent in South- 

 western New Jersey and common on the Atlantic slope in the South- 

 ern States, finds with us, perhaps its most northeastern natural 

 habitat. It is reported as growing in Suffolk and Westchester Coun- 

 ties, but there it may have been planted. It is a large tree with 

 much the aspect of the Pitch Pine, but more slender with less rigid 

 leaves and smaller cones. We have found it in but three localities 

 on Staten Island. Tottenville has a few trees, a single one of large 

 size grows in a field about half a mile east of Gifford's Station, and 

 a group stand near the base of the hills about opposite the junction 

 of the Fingerboard and Richmond roads. It may be known by its 

 slender needles which are in two and threes in short sheaths and its 

 cone scales tipped with weak bristles. 



The fourth pine native to our Island is the Jersey Scrub Pine or 

 Spruce Pine ( Finns incps), which, like the Yellow Pine, is certainly 

 not indigenous much farther to the northeast. Very common in the 

 lower Delaware Valley and occasional along the Raritan. We know 

 it only from Kreischerville and Four Corners and a single tree near 

 Clifton detected some years since by Mr. Hollick. It is a small tree, 

 branching horizontally from the very base when allowed to stand 

 uncrowded and forming with its dense, dark foliage and abundant 



